Benchmarks - Dirt 3

Dirt 3 is a popular rally racing game, one of the several popular racing series by Codemasters, and uses their EGO 2.0 Engine to create very realistic environments and particle effects while using the latest Direct X11, which the GTX 500-series cards were designed for.

Dirt 3, for reasons we haven't yet nailed down, tends to be the limiting test for overclocked testing. We almost always have to paper down our overclock a bit in order for Dirt 3 to give 3-5 runs without artifacting or crashing altogether. We didn't have to decrease our clock speeds very much with the 7970, however, as we were able to get stable runs with an 1150 MHz GPU clock and a 6800 MHz memory clock. Keep in mind that this is using the locked voltage of the newer GPU Tweak builds limited to 1.120V.

Either way, we see the 7970 hit a more dominant stride against the other mid-range cards on our test bench, with minimum framerates at stock voltage well above the average framerate of the GTX 660. The HD 7970 DCUII pumps out buttery smooth gaming bliss at 1080P, which we'd expect from a top-tier card.

Comments

It's a huge issue on these models. To be straight ti the point: http://www.xtremehardware.com/recensioni/schede-video/arctic-cooling-hybrid-7970-pt-ii-test-accessori-e-confronto-con-asus-7970dc2t-201211157843/?start=10

ASUS DCT2T, 60 degrees on the core and 100 degress on the VRM section. That's a huge amount and this is why they limited the Over-Voltage capabilities. If being overclocked at 1GHz with 1.112mV it generates 74/112 degrees celsius for core/VRM

note: che first setting it's blank due a graph error but as you can see in the other images it's "ASUS HD7970-DC2T-3GD5 AUTO/40%, 1974 RPM"

The 7970, as it's shown in your review, it's a very solid performer. Good day

please stop with this rumor, those temperature are due to an error as stated many times bu asus, if you use the correct GPU tweak you will see that they never goes over 78 degree in my case...please avoid missinformation

please stop with this rumor, those temperature are due to an error as stated many times bu asus, if you use the correct GPU tweak you will see that they never goes over 78 degree in my case...please avoid missinformation

Hi Ivan

Show me something, a link to an Asus Statement or something like that. I've never heard of such clarification, would you be so kind to show it ?

If you're right, this should mean that eveery VRM sensor mounted on the Gigabyte and Asus, or even 7970 reference designs, should have some issues. As you can see from the graphs, ad stock speeds it's all right for gigabyte 797OC-3GD but if overclocked it behaves similar to the Asus one.

Have you made personal tests that proove that the sensors are broken ?

What I've posted it's what I've seen also on other designs, not only Asus and if you check the ROG forums it's full of reports, like this one (7950 DCII model, faulty design): http://www.behardware.com/news/12153/asus-hd-7950-directcu-ii-fault-report.html

It's not a ''rumour'' if it happens to an entire comunity ;)

Another link, HWINFO program tells the same story (it could be obviously the same sensor, but it's not a software related problem): http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1670759&page=22

In this lik there's a person which states what I've seen on my test lab, Gigabyte 797OC-3GB capable of heat the VRM section at 65 degrees with the stock settings.

I suggest you to read carefully hte review, the Arctic Cooling accelero Hybrid it was installed in the gigabyte 7970 797OC-3GD not the Asus DC2T.

I suppose that you're referring to the Core temps, since that GPU Tweak only reports it, and it's perfecly in-line with the temperatures reported in the review.

Before stating that what I've done is misinformation, please let us know about what you're talking about.